Ron James Youth Tennis Program results in grants – SCNow

FLORENCE, S.C. — The Ron James Youth Tennis Program (RJYTP), which was founded in 2021 to provide tennis and education to under-served youth in the Florence area, has received a $10,050 USTA Southern Section Innovations Grant to establish a program at Levy Park in Florence. In addition, the Program earned a $2,000 Southern Parks and Recreation Grant to purchase supplies and equipment for the program. Although the RJYTP has worked with over 800 children in after-school and weekend programs, this will be its first neighborhood program where kids can participate without worrying about transportation.

The Levy Park Program, slated to begin in April, will be a collaboration between the RJYTP and the City of Florence Department of Recreation Services. A certified tennis instructor will provide after-school, weekend and summer clinics to kids enrolled in Levy Park’s after-school program, and, when space is available, to other children from the surrounding community.

Ron James Board President Beth York said, “Tennis has tremendous health, psychological and social benefits that can change lives, and this program will be our first chance to bring those benefits to kids in a direct and continuing way”. Recreation Services Program Coordinator Paul Jones noted that “ he welcomes this collaboration and is looking forward to adding tennis to its array of youth sports”.

Last year the RJYTP worked with USTA South Carolina and the City Departments of Athletics & Sports Tourism and Recreation Services to fence the two existing tennis courts at Levy Park, making them usable for instruction and recreational play. According to Ron James Programs volunteer Executive Director, Paul Pittman, “A lot of people from different organizations worked for months to get us to the point where we can bring tennis to the kids who live near Levy Park”.

A self-governing affiliate of the Florence Tennis Association, the Ron James Program is a member of the National Junior Tennis and Learning network, a nationwide group of several hundred youth programs that work to improve lives through tennis and education.